1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus using a liquid developer including carrier liquid and toner, a developing method, and an image forming method.
2. Related Art
In the related art, some of wet-type image forming apparatuses configured to develop an electrostatic latent image formed on an image carrier by a liquid developer thin layer formed by a developing device, and transfer a visualized image onto a printing medium have a structure including a developing unit having a developer carrier for feeding the liquid developer thin layer to the image carrier disposed thereon, a developer carrier cleaning unit that removes and collects the liquid developer on the developer carrier after development, and a liquid developer storage which is able to store the liquid developer in the developing unit.
The developing unit includes a developer collecting unit that collects the undeveloped liquid developer removed from the developer carrier and conveys to the liquid developer storage (JP-A-2001-125383).
However, with the technology disclosed in JP-A-2001-125383, when conveying the collected liquid developer to the liquid developer storage, the developer retains in the developer collecting unit, so that the stirring property and the dispersing property of developer after development and new developer might be lowered. Also, the stirring property and the dispersing property of the liquid developer to be conveyed to the liquid developer storage might be lowered depending on the state of the collected liquid developer. Consequently, the wide density fluctuations in the liquid developer storage may be resulted.